The point of writing code is so that a computer can do what you tell it to.

And it usually some side effects - changes makes outside itself.

Output is printed, data is stored, a light turns on or a sound plays. You can even add sound to a debugger to help tell you when certain good or bad events are hit. This gives a fast feedback loop.

Programming is the magic and wizardry of our time. Using code we make a sandcastle in the clouds, which otherwise never would have been and it can disappear if you wish. Or you can use it and share it.

“Finally there is the delight of working in such a tractable medium. The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and rework, so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual structures.” quotes page or Google book

You can change a part of your recipe to build your sandcastle then rebuild it in an instant.

You can interact with the finished sandcastle - which is never really finished as it is not fixed.

“Art is never finished, only abandoned.”

- Leonardo da Vinci

Or lyrics from a band named aKING:

A song is never finished, only abandoned.

Programming can be used to automate tasks, to process input and output, or to do your work. Or writing the code can be the work. Or it can be to make art, graphs, games or book. Or it can let you make things as a canvas, dashboard builder, game maker or content manager. It can make a game without a point or predictable score or outcome but that you can play with - a digital toy of sorts.

Coding is an art - it takes creativity in problem solving and applying tech to the real world. There’s a leap of imagination and vision to see something in your mind and then make it, whether using keystrokes, button clicks or glueing together code and tech by other people.

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

  • Oscar Wilde

From an TED talk I watched - Why tech needs the humanities:

We are scratching the surface in our ability as humans to communicate and invent together, and while the sciences teach us how to build things, it’s the humanities that teach us what to build and why to build them.

And they’re equally as important, and they’re just as hard.